Will Islamists validate Pope Benedict?
How predictable. In an academic speech, the Pope quoted a 14th century Byzantine leader against Muhammad's spreading of religion by violence, and how his life is in danger.
CNN is carrying a Reuters story headlined, "Islam row raises Pope safety fears."
If only Muslim leaders around the world had been as indignant five years ago about 9/11 terrorism in the name of Islam as they are today about the Pope! Perhaps that indignation would have snuffed out Islamist radicalism.
Speaking at the University of Regensburg on September 12, Pope Benedict XVI denounced violence perpetrated in the name of religion, and commented on the practice of forcibly converting people to faiths.
That was enough for Muslim leaders around the world, who - practially without exception, if news coverage is correct - lamented or denounced his comments. Some compared him, predictably, to Hitler.
So far, just like after 9/11, there's no indication of introspection. Just more foaming-at-the-mouth hysteria. Within a day, some church officials were worrying that the hysteria could result in more Islamist attacks on Christian churches around the world, or even an assassination of the Pope himself.
The last papal assassination attempt occurred in 1981 at the hand of Turkish Muslim Mehmet Ali Agca. Religion was not an issue in that attempt.
Pope Benedict went out of his way in his September 12 speech to be respectful of Islam. Concluding his remarks, he said, "the world's profoundly religious cultures see this exclusion of the divine [religiously-motivated violence] from the universality of reason as an attack on their most profound convictions. A reason which is deaf to the divine and which relegates religion into the realm of subcultures is incapable of entering into the dialogue of cultures."
Click here for the full prepared text of Pope Benedict's September 12 speech: http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=46474.
CNN is carrying a Reuters story headlined, "Islam row raises Pope safety fears."
If only Muslim leaders around the world had been as indignant five years ago about 9/11 terrorism in the name of Islam as they are today about the Pope! Perhaps that indignation would have snuffed out Islamist radicalism.
Speaking at the University of Regensburg on September 12, Pope Benedict XVI denounced violence perpetrated in the name of religion, and commented on the practice of forcibly converting people to faiths.
That was enough for Muslim leaders around the world, who - practially without exception, if news coverage is correct - lamented or denounced his comments. Some compared him, predictably, to Hitler.
So far, just like after 9/11, there's no indication of introspection. Just more foaming-at-the-mouth hysteria. Within a day, some church officials were worrying that the hysteria could result in more Islamist attacks on Christian churches around the world, or even an assassination of the Pope himself.
The last papal assassination attempt occurred in 1981 at the hand of Turkish Muslim Mehmet Ali Agca. Religion was not an issue in that attempt.
Pope Benedict went out of his way in his September 12 speech to be respectful of Islam. Concluding his remarks, he said, "the world's profoundly religious cultures see this exclusion of the divine [religiously-motivated violence] from the universality of reason as an attack on their most profound convictions. A reason which is deaf to the divine and which relegates religion into the realm of subcultures is incapable of entering into the dialogue of cultures."
Click here for the full prepared text of Pope Benedict's September 12 speech: http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=46474.
posted by JMW at 7:50 AM
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